David James, CEOBath Tourism Plus

“Bath Tourism Plus is a

well run destination

management

organisation and a good

example of public and

private sectors working

successfully together.“

Andrew Stokes CEO Visit

England

Bath Tourism Plus• Public/Private Partnership

- 500 members (24% are outside the City)

- 80% commercial funding

• Operates UK’s busiest Visitor Information Centre (535,000 visitors)

• Delivers high value marketing: PR coverage is worth £30m per year

• Delivers one of the UK’s best Christmas Markets

• www.visitbath.co.uk is one of England’s busiest tourism websites: 3million visits (2014)

Tourism in

B&NES

• Supports 10,000 jobs

• 10% of jobs in B&NES

• Earns £410m for the

destination

• Is good for local

businesses and local

residents

• 6 million visitors p.a

Bath’s Visitor

Economy is

worth £410

million

per annum

Our Goals

• Encourage visitors to stay

mid week and in low

season

• Marketing focus on

encouraging visitors to stay

overnight

• Growth in high spending

overseas markets

• Encourage those who

already visit the City to

discover & explore the

surrounding parts of the

City and beyond

Our Vision

To grow the value of tourism in

Bath and the surrounding area

by working in partnership

across the industry in the

delivery of integrated marketing

programmes that are timed and

targeted to provide maximum

growth

Our competition

Positioning the (attract) Bath Brand

Our Brand Essence:

• Beauty

• Heritage

• Feel- Good

• Distinctive

Who comes to our Destination?

Type of Visitor

Numbers Spend

Domestic

staying

684,000 £126m

Internation

al

283,000 £97m

Day Visits 4.8m £173m

Total 5.8m £410m (includes SFR)

Main Reason for Visit

Holiday /

Leisure

VFR

Special

Shopping Trip

Business /

Conference

Language student

Other

Attract & Disperse Strategy

• Attract marketing leads with our key strength to gain the attention of the customer in a

very competitive industry

• Our Dispersal Plan is designed to complement the attract plan to:

Increase levels of product awareness and destination knowledge to encourage wider

participation, longer stays and repeat visits

Dispersal Plan

• Encourage those already in the city to discover and explore outside the

city to other recognised visitor destinations and key towns & Villages:

Farrington Gurney, High Littleton, Midsomer Norton, Paulton,

Peasedown St John, Radstock, Timsbury and Westfield

Dispersal Objectives for Bath &

Beyond

• Maximise dispersal of visitors around the destination

• Encourage more activity, longer stays, greater spend

and repeat visits

Key Activities in the Somer Valley

• Midsomer Norton Carnival & Music Festival

• Venues for live performances and entertainment

• Radstock Museum

• Arts Festival & Fayre

• Somerset and Dorset Railway

• Colliers Way Route 24

• Great walking & Cycling routes

• Historical features

(Somerset Coal Canal)

Dispersal Plan- how are we going to do it?

• Producing dispersal publications – once in the city how do we ‘educate’

visitors to explore? We simply inform them at the point of contact. Film &

TV Guide, Beyond Bath Guide

• The Visit Bath App & videos- with real time information on the things to

do and see pages with the App. We need content and stories..

• Events – new events create noise and noise can creates footfall, what is

new, what is going on; tell us

• Visitor information Points – we cannot expect everyone to get information

by walking into a VIC. Can we set up a network of VIC points?

Dispersal PlanSocial media & PR – offer the cheapest form of ‘noise’ but regularly forgotten. We

have massive platforms – use us to tell your story!

Promotions – can your attractions make offers to increase interest?

Staying visitors – can we offer visitors accommodation outside the ‘expensive’ city

– out of city offers?

Bath Residents – can we reach out to these residents to make a visit to Somer

Valley?

BTP Membership – can we develop an out of city membership rate – why should

out of city businesses pay the same as those in the city?

Our Website- Bath & Beyond

Website Performance stats-dispersal

Provider Location Map Viewed Product Details Displayed

Longleat Safari & Adventure Park 30579 41178

Stonehenge 21649 30864

The Cotswolds 0 9568

Radstock & Midsomer Norton 5147 8803

Bristol 4350 8660

Castle Combe 4799 8362

Bradford on Avon 3226 6374

Frome 2277 5443

Somerset 0 5118

Wiltshire 0 5088

Wells 2175 5075

Lacock 2147 4916

Cheddar 1903 4613

Salisbury 1246 3952

Corsham 1376 3947

Glastonbury 1095 3834

Gloucestershire 0 3554

North East Somerset 0 3522

Thank you

David James, CEOBath Tourism Plus